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| Paper: |
Galileo and Music: A Family Affair |
| Volume: |
441, The Inspiration of Astronomical Phenomena VI |
| Page: |
57 |
| Authors: |
Fabris, D. |
| Abstract: |
According to Viviani, Galileo's first biographer, the scientist was an
excellent keyboard and lute player. In turn Vincenzo Galilei, father
of the illustrious scientist, had been one of the most influential
music theorist of his age and also a great composer and virtuoso of
the lute. Galileo and his brother Michelangelo, born in 1575,
inherited Vincenzo's duel skills, both in theory and practical music:
Galileo's correspondences show indeed his competence in the music and
in the lute playing; Michelagnolo, after being educated in part in
Galileo's house in Padua, transferred to Germany in Munich, where he
became a court lute player. Nevertheless, Galileo helped for the rest
of his life not only his brother but also his nephews, as documented
in dozen of family letters quite important to establish the central
role of the music in Galileo's everyday life, a fact almost ignored by
most modern biographers. The importance of music in Galileo's output
and life has been first outlined by the historian of sciences Stillman
Drake and by the musicologist Claude Palisca. After their studies
starting in the 1960s there is a great belief that Vincenzo
influenced his son Galileo, directing him towards experimentation.
The aim of this paper, following the reconstruction of Galileo's
soundscape proposed by Pierluigi Petrobelli, is to reexamine the
surviving historical accounts on the musical passion and talent of
Galileo and his family in the several houses where they performed
music (in Florence, Padua, Munich, etc.) in particular on the lute,
the instrument that was an important experimental tool for the
scientist. |
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